America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor. And poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and, therefore, more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question, “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand—glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.
…
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since Napoleonic times.
[I see] all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.
“You sound to me as though you don’t believe in free will,” said Billy Pilgrim.
If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings, I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by ‘free will.’ I’ve visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will.
I have to go back. because they weren’t checkmarks
The American Student Today, Pt.2
This is part two of a two-part series of essays. If you missed part one, you can find it here.
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So you’re stuck.
There is a way to get un-stuck. This is where I should urge you to call your senator, or write a sternly-worded letter, but you and I both know our political economy has progressed beyond the democratic illusion. Answers to questions of great magnitude must sometimes be of equal magnitude, and this is likely the case in our current political and economic (as if they were separate) ‘predicament’. The American student today must reach beyond hoping for bipartisan agreements, for more ‘job creation’ bills, and for ‘main street’ bailouts. You will not awake to find that Democrats and Republicans have discovered a way to amicably solve the inherent problems of education in the free market. You will not awake to find that your B.A. in Comparative Literature has become the must-have in the newest Forbes ranking. It is increasingly clear that the socioeconomic troubles of the young cannot be fixed by the same worn-out tools. Capitalism does not solve capitalism. Loss does not cover loss. A success still means another’s failure.
We know that these rules have dictated precisely why there are not jobs for the newest graduates and aspiring intellectuals. Graduating today and entering the workforce is like merging onto an interstate of bumper-to-bumper traffic: There’s no space even to enter. And as a favor to those of us waiting, America’s colleges and universities have increasingly begun to open new law schools and specialized master’s degree programs so that more of us can weather the economic storm in what is sold as a worthwhile investment in our intellectual development. Everyone is told to wait, and things will turn around in due time: “That’s just how the markets fluctuate over the long term,” they say.
The fact that the markets do, in fact, turn around is precisely the problem.
As sociologist David Harvey demonstrates, the only thing laying ahead of us on this road is a continuation of problems whose severity will only magnify. “Any sensible person right now would join an anti-capitalist organization,” he states. And he’s right. It will make no difference whether you vote Republican or Democrat in next year’s election because American capitalism has long ago manufactured the illusion that you have a real choice. However, for any change to come, you have to be ready to admit that your choice is among two slight variants of the same diseased ideology. Your vote would only be based on a difference that doesn’t make a difference. As Harvey admits, you have to realize that it’s crap, and be courageous enough to say that it is.
The dissatisfaction of the American student is the ugly result of an American Dream that was never real, sustainable, or humanistic. It has been turned violently inward on itself, devouring its own dogma since its inception. If you long to do meaningful work for society and for others, making your checkmarks in an educational system that is identical to the American capitalist economy will not satisfy those longings nor pay you for your time misspent.
If I’ve learned anything about human nature through my studying and conversing, it’s that people are, at bottom, scared. And now more than ever you have a duty to change your mode of thinking and strive to push away from the systemic violences that have not just become the norm, but have frightened already frightened people away from believing that anything other could be real.
The American Student Today, Pt.1
How frequently do you hear your friends and acquaintances mention how dissatisfied they are with their schooling? It has become ridiculously common that someone I know feels disgusted by either their chosen academic pathway or their everyday interaction with fellow students whose repulsive actions might as well be attributed to an equal amount of educational disgust. It’s true: students today are stuck. One way or another, the amount of discontent that the American student has for her academic and intellectual life is beyond worrisome. I can’t help but wonder how much longer things may bend but not break.
First of all, it’s important to realize what I’m not talking about. The phenomenon to which I refer is not related to the accusation that human beings biologically prefer laziness or “the easy way out.” It is not related to accusations that young people or millenials have been overly pampered. It is not related to the accusation that young people in America would simply prefer to ‘GTL’ rather than work.
What I am talking about is the way that American schools (regardless of level) have pauperized the American student. Students, both eager and reluctant, have found no relief from the capitalist market as they partake in the intellectual life of the university. Even with the semblances of free public education offered by in-state grants and ‘lottery scholarships’, no student is currently escaping the ravages of a capitalist stronghold on the university. I’m not just talking about the blatant theft going on in law schools. I mean every school that offers what should no longer be called ‘education’ proper is profit-driven to the point of exploitation. Everyone has, by now, seen the numbers on tuition increases as they massively outpace inflation. Students everywhere have become victimized two-fold: not only are they not learning (and thus, acquiring real education), but they are also becoming indebted to the market. Every young person I know is obsessed, and rightly so, with what has often been referred to as ‘checkmarks’. Learn this so you can pass that. Complete this prerequisite to take that prerequisite. File this form so you can fill out that form. Get this degree so you can (attempt to) get that degree. Every market activity (and thus, every activity) we perform is now either to earn a checkmark or to forget, for a few fleeting moments, that we missed/failed/forgot one. And if you’re not currently making checkmarks on these lists (and by now you should know what ‘lists’ I’m talking about), you’ve already lost. At least according to the market.
It can only be hoped that these are the markers of late capitalism, and that new economic and social understandings might become both clarified and believable. The fact that we are now handed two things at graduation—a degree and a ‘debt repayment kit’—leaves little room for counter-argument. There isn’t a shorter straw than that, but that’s the one we’re being handed.
If English majors want to be taken seriously, the first thing we need to do is to stop internalizing all the self-loathing imposed on us by assholes who think it’s a useless degree.
English and the liberal arts might not have equipped me with the perfect skillset for this shitty economy / zeitgeist, but they did teach me the importance of critically examining the world I live in. The unexamined life, etc.
When was the last time you read something that wasn’t 140 characters?
